New Cosplay: Black Orchid from Killer Instinct

Orchid was always my preferred fighter whenever I played Killer Instinct. This game holds a very dear place in my heart as it was one of the only games we owned growing up in a lower-income family. I first picked up the title at the entirely too early age of 11 before the days of game-ratings, but I turned out okay. I love the bright colors, silly storylines, and cheesy internet memes that have spoofed from this classic title. My particular favorite came as a result of the 2008 election:

Obama 2008

Orchid has been on my to-cosplay list for years, and shortly after I started this project in May, E3 announced the new Killer Instinct game for Xbox One! I was totally flipping out as I thought we would never see another KI game since the title hasn't really tried to keep up with rival titles over the years. It was certainly a great motivator to finish this costume in time for DragonCon, and although not many people recognized who I was, the few that did appreciated the throwback to a classic fighting game.

VS

Most Orchid cosplayers make her KI2 version or modify her original outfit to make it more flattering, but I chose to be completely faithful to Orchid's KI version. Her original outfit with the cheesy "HOT" torso lettering will always be the image that pops into my head when someone references her. In fact, the "HOT" lettering applique is the portion of this costume I am particularly proud of as it took a lot of controlled sewing to get it right.

"HOT" progress photo

I drafted all of my own patterns and made everything from scratch on this cosplay. I took creative liberties for parts of this costume since the original sprite didn't have enough detail to translate the character to real life, but fortunately Nintendo Power made a Killer Instinct edition forever ago. The comic helped to answer a couple of questions, such as the exact shape of her sword bases. In KI2, she just has tonfas, but in the original KI her sword bases were different.

Photo by Cobheran

In total this costume took 2 weeks from start to finish. I hand-sewed my gloves, made her sword bases on a lathe and added ABS plastic accents, styled the wig for 4 hours, and made bootcovers. Of all the different parts to make of this costume, the bootcovers were the most difficult and time-consuming part. One part of the boots I am particularly proud of are her silver batteries. I used my architecture-powers to model them out in AutoCAD then 3D printed them out.

Photo by Cobheran

Finally, it wasn't enough for me to have a faithful costume, but I wanted to really nail the look. I played with different make-up styles, got blue doll-eye contacts, but the most important thing to get right was the wig. I spent about 4 hours styling my Orchid wig to make sure it had her squiggly bangs. I used to think she had on a cool helmet as a kid with the way her hair was shaped, but they were just really intense early 90's styling.

Photo by Cobheran

Thank you for reading about my experience in cosplaying one of my favorite deadly ladies! I would love to hear your thoughts on all Killer Instinct related topics, so feel free to drop a line below! Share your favorite team or some of your SUPREME VICTORIES!